Three days into actor Lawrence Street’s mysterious disappearance in Denver over the weekend, his friends were issuing emotionally charged salvos at the perceived non-handling of the case to that point by the Denver and Louisville police departments. As the tense drama unfolded, the police-bashing theme mushroomed on social networking sites. Tonight, Louisville Chief of Police Bruce Goodman forcefully defended his department’s handling of the Street disappearance, and answered to detractors whom he says held “not a clue how much effort was being put into this case.”

Long before anyone knew what fate had befallen Street, a desperate and inflammatory out-of-town email was issued in the name of Street’s friend, Franklin Trapp, not only alerting the media of Street’s disappearance, but charging that the police in Colorado were not yet involving themselves in the case because Street is black, and gay.

In that part of the email, which The Post chose not to circulate along with information about Street’s disappearance, was Trapp’s frustrated observation that, “The cops say, ‘He is an adult’ (and) he can find his way home.’ ” Trapp went on to question: “It it that he is gay or black, that he is not important???”

He then issued the following threat, which, again, The Denver Post chose not to distribute while the case was still unresolved:

“We have contacted the Human Rights Campaign and the media, because apparently Colorado does not care about missing gay men. I will make it my main goal to make sure that Colorado is a hateful state if nothing is done to try to help find this amazing man.”

In 1992, Colorado was labeled “The Hate State,” when a comparatively small number of voters passed the infamous Amendment 2, which prohibited state and local officials from doing anything to protect gay people from discrimination. The referendum was declared unconstitutional before it ever went into effect. But to this day, it is a charge that makes most Coloradans bristle. Amendment 2’s passage was a wake-up call to a largely sleeping electorate. Recently, former Gov. Bill Ritter signed into law a ban on job discrimination against those who are gay or transgendered, and signed a bill giving gay partners the right to be legal co-parents. It was an unprecedented piece of legislation, and one most people in Colorado consider far more representative of the state as a whole.

Situations like Street’s disappearance are agonizing for loved ones near and far who can’t understand why any police department will not immediately expend any and all resources to locate any person as soon as he or she is reported missing.

But while it is a myth that you must wait up to 72 hours to report a person missing, it is unrealistic to think that any police department has the manpower and resources to respond immediately to every missing-persons report, when most adult missing persons are found not to have been the victims of kidnapping, murder or some other criminal act. Very few of them are, in fact. Rather, the vast majority of reported missing persons are found or voluntarily return home within 48-72 hours after being reported. Just as happened in this case.

Problem is, even though The Denver Post chose not to distribute Trapp’s charge that the police departments here are inherently racist and homophobic, his theme was picked up and proliferated throughout Facebook and Twitter. It spread like wildfire, doing great and unfair harm to the reputations of both police departments.

Fact is, being a missing person is not a crime, and police are given a very limited role while conducting these types of investigations. Given the quick results achieved here, the Denver and Louisville police departments certainly seem to have acted appropriately and expediently, and do not deserve the virtual black eye they have taken.

It is clear from Goodman’s account of events that Denver and Louisville police were working in concert toward locating Street, which they accomplished in comparatively short order.

But, damage done. And tonight, Goodman personally responded to the charges that, in hindsight, now seem, at best, precipitous and uninformed, and, at worst, downright malicious:

“The freedom of movement and the right to travel are at the core of this country’s liberties, and the government should not abridge people’s right to be alone or to “go missing” when they are of reasonably sound mind. Even though Mr. Street sought to be and had the right to be apart from his friends and colleagues, the Louisville Police Department launched an all-out, full-court press to locate him. His friends were justly concerned and, based upon their compassion, a lot of time and resources were invested before Mr. Street was confirmed to be OK. Notwithstanding the cheap shots from far-away blogging detractors who had not a clue how much effort was being put into this case, the resources were not wasted, and we are happy that Mr. Street is where he wants to be.” — Bruce Goodman, Chief of Police, Louisville Police Department

To which, in hindsight, any reasonable person can only say, “Touche.” It’s miraculous that Street’s story, which at one time seemed so inevitably bleak, ended so happily. It is regrettable that the reputation of the fine police officers in two counties took a beating in the process. It was their quick work that served not to ensure Mr. Street’s personal safety — that, in retrospect, was apparently never in question — but that brought the case to a quick resolution and, in doing so, immediately assuaged the fear and trepidation of hundreds awaiting the outcome.

(To make an odd situation even more odd, Trapp now says that he never wrote the initial email that was sent through his personal account. Instead, he deferred to Street’s friend John Ayres, who was coordinating online efforts to determine Street’s whereabouts from Atlanta.)

Film & theater critic Lisa Kennedy likes to watch -- a lot. She also has a fondness for no-man’s lands, contested territories and Venn Diagrams. She believes the best place to live is usually on the border between two vibrant neighborhoods. Where better to apply this penchant for overlap and divergence than covering film and theater – two arts that owe so much to each other yet offer radically idiosyncratic pleasures? In another life, Kennedy was an Obie judge. In this one, she’s been a Pulitzer Prize judge in criticism, an Independent Spirit Award jurist and Colorado’s first member of the National Society of Film Critics.

More than a mash-up of the Running Lines and Diary of a Madmoviergoer blogs, Stage, Screen & In Between offers engaged takes on Colorado theater and film and pointed views on news from both coasts and both industries. Culture lovers, add your voices. Culture-makers, share your production journal entries and photos.